Star inventors and gender gaps in patented innovations

This article examines the factors that underlie the gender gap in patenting activities with large predominance of male innovators. In particular, the study investigates the presence of women among outstanding inventors, which we define as the "stars". Star innovators are identified through two different definitions with respect to the quantity and quality of their output, distinguishing between prolific inventors with high numbers of patents registered in their name and inventors with high numbers of citations per patent. Using data for more than 600’000 inventors, with up to 30 years of patent activity for each individual, we find that women are underrepresented among the overall pool of inventors, but less so among stars, and on the contrary, there seems to be a female advantage among top innovators, probably driven by selection effects.